What Makes You Happy?

Hi honeys
I hope you're having a great week and seeing lots of sunshine.  On Friday I talked about pet peeves or annoyances and today I thought, just to address the balance, we should talk about happiness :)

Everyone wants to be happy and everyone seems to have different ideas of what happiness actually is, or what's needed to achieve it.  Obviously I can't speak for anyone but myself but for what it's worth honeys here is what makes me happy, how many do you agree with?

Family & Friends 

Always first on my list is my sweet Hubby (love you sweetheart) & our furbaby Jade. Always, always, always :) And where would any of us be without our friends?  You know who you are honeys :) Thank you for always being there x

Our Home 

It's not fancy, it's never going to appear in a magazine, it's just a very ordinary three bedroom, one bathroom 1950s semi detached but we adore it.  It's so much more than our home though, it's my safe place when the world gets too scary, it's a place we've spent years filling with memories, it's home :)

Reading 

I've already blogged about how much I adore those perfect collaborations of paper & ink known as books, and even about my latest additions :)

Can I take a minute to mention how fortunate we are, thanks to online resources, to have access to so much information.  I remember fondly so many happy hours spent as a child with a set of Encyclopaedia Britannica we had at home, such joy! Today there is an online version which is just as wonderful. 

Language is no longer a barrier to learning. By using resources such as Google translate we can visit web sites to learn about other countries & cultures, read poetry & literature, visit online museums and see great works of art, and learn about the artists responsible for creating them.  We really are living in a wonderful time where all of the knowledge and skill of the worlds greatest minds and artists are available to us at the click of a mouse or the swipe of a screen.   

Music 

As a part of the Blogtember Challenge late last year I wrote about the music that moves me.  Music can stir memories we'd forgotten we had, it can make us (definitely me anyway) smile and cry.  Think what your favourite movie would be without it's score?  Sometimes just a snippet of music, a few notes even, can be enough to re-connect us to times past.  Music can be a wonderful way to relax, to unwind from the stresses of the day.  For me it's a way to disconnect from the world for a while. Music helps me cope in ways that nothing else does.

Beauty

There is so much beauty around us honeys.  In nature, in design, in architecture.  A wise person once told me that to see anything beautiful in the city, I had to look up.  I think this might be true of most large cities honeys.  Everyone is in such a rush to get where they're going that nobody stops to look up at what's around them.  If you're lucky enough to live in an old city dear ones, stop sometime and look up. You'll be amazed at what you see :)

What about the beauty in people honeys?  By that though I mean real beauty. The beauty that has absolutely nothing to do with how well someone's eyebrows are shaped or how cool their hair sits or what their dress size is.  I'm talking about the beauty that is measured in kindness, in compassion for others, in a generosity of spirit.  Of doing something for someone else for no other reason than just because you can. 

There is so much horror in newspapers & on the news these days. People doing horrible, dreadful things to people and animals.  It's so awful that I don't cope at times.  It's then I have to remind myself the world is also full of people who go through their whole lives carrying out quiet, random, acts of kindness without any reward or recognition.

You're actually carrying out just such a quiet, random act of kindness right now, dear ones, just by being here and making this little corner of the internet less lonely. Thank you so much for that, it means more than I can say x

Yesterday afternoon there was a loud rapping at our front door.  I opened it to see a delivery driver holding a huge box.  Inside were these.....

Aren't they beautiful honeys?  They were a wonderful surprise from my best friend. No reason, just that she'd thought of me.  It meant the whole world to me yesterday and absolutely made my day.  Not just the flowers, although they are stunningly beautiful and I adore them, but a phone call from my dear sweet Meme always brightens my day.  We've been friends for over 20 years and have shared so much, laughs as well as tears. She was long, long ago adopted as my wee sister and I consider myself blessed to have her in my life.  Thank you, my wee angel, for the gorgeous flowers and for just being you x

We all have so many things to be grateful for & happy about honeys and its so important to count our blessings.  To take stock of the wonderful people and blessings in our lives, to be aware of how lucky we are.  What's making you happy today?  What makes you smile?  Do you adore reading or music? What can always be counted on to make you smile?  I hope you're having a fabulous day dear ones, till next time, hugs always xx